Thus, Axe also estimated (a) the number of proteins of modest length (150 residues) that perform a specified function via any folded structure compared to (b) the whole set of possible amino-acid sequences of that size. Based on his experiments and data about the number of stable folded proteins that exist, Axe estimated that ratio to be about 1 to 1077. A telling conclusion follows from this experimental data: The probability of any given mutational trial generating (or “finding”) a specific functional protein among all the possible 150 residue amino-acid sequences is 1 chance in 1077—that
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